802.11 nickname

[lucid]

As many people know it is good to use a proxy or a few if you wish to hide you identity while doing whatever it is that you may want to do. Changing your MAC is good in combination with using a proxy/tor/public wifi/other method. However there are other less known network attributes that may be dangerous to your anonymity. Here's a tip from a good source I found.

 

The 802.11 Nickname field is a little-known feature of the wireless spec that sends your hostname to the AP. This is obviously bad.

• Linux
  

       [root@machine ~/dir]#  iwconfig ath0 nickname "Fucko The Clown" 

• Mac OS
  Under Mac OS, your wireless nickname is your hostname. You can change it with sudo hostname -s "Fucko The Clown"
• Windows
  I think your only option is to choose an obscure machine name. If you wish to change your hostname, you can either edit these registry keys or run the NewSID utility
  

[techno]

i just read somewhere that mac address is permanent and can never be changed
is this false or am i just mistaken?

[p_2001]

i just read somewhere that mac address is permanent and can never be changed
is this false or am i just mistaken?

as far as I know it is hardware implemented, but it can be spoofed

[Kulverstukas]

MAC address is permanent and cannot be changed permanently. Although tools exist to change it until reboot.

[lucid]

Yes such as macchanger for linux. Or madmacs for windows. I think that's what it's called. If you change your mac permanently you would find that you can no longer connect to the internet

[Axon]

May I add this ?

Code: [Select]

http://securityxploded.com/macaddress.php

This is more detailed for windows

Code: [Select]

http://www.windowsreference.com/networking/how-to-change-mac-address-in-windows-registry/

[techno]

thanks for the replies guyz
i think now i got it

[Dijkstra]

Changing your mac address is pointless. Your mac is only used within your local area network. It can be handy when trying to by-pass certain layer 2 security checkpoints on a network (for example Cisco clean access).

[lucid]

You just contradicted yourself.

Changing your mac address is pointless. Your mac is only used within your local area network. It can be handy when trying to by-pass certain layer 2 security checkpoints on a network (for example Cisco clean access).

I don't think it's pointless. Changing your IP only an expecting to be anonymous is pointless. Seeing the same MAC appear would pretty much give away who is doing what no matter what proxy you use.

[techno]

is the mac address visible when i connect to websites or is it just visible in LANs?

[lucid]

Mac addresses are often used by networks to identify and track users. But websites do not see the mac address. The only way a website can track users is through cookies AFAIK. Your mac is not included i the TCP/IP packets.

[Dijkstra]

You just contradicted yourself. I don't think it's pointless. Changing your IP only an expecting to be anonymous is pointless. Seeing the same MAC appear would pretty much give away who is doing what no matter what proxy you use.

I don't think what I wrote was a contradiction, I thought I had a clear dichotomy between "local area network" and "internet traffic". If you are using a proxy such as "tor" changing your mac address is quite pointless, any traffic that goes past your default gateway the mac address is actually replaced with the default gateway's mac.

Even on a school network for example, if the proxy server is on a different vlan than the lab computers, the proxy will not know the computer's mac address you are at. Obviously it will have highler levels of application data that it will track such as the AD user account.

The point I was making is there are few situations where I could see changing the mac address would be beneficial, such as my example I mentioned before (clean access). Networking applications are much smarter than they use to be.

[lucid]

I was just pointing out that you said it's pointless, and then that it can be handy in the same sentence.

[Dijkstra]

Well not in the same sentence, but point taken. I often write as though those I am writing to know what's going on in my head, one of my many downfalls.

[techb]

Machine names are widely used in finding the culprit. When I was in college, I was messing around on the network, and the sys admin found me only because my machine name was my real name.


I didn't get into trouble and actually got extra credit when I showed him the remote shell on the professors computer. In windows my name is usually "unknown" or "na". Linux it's usually an online handle or some new screen name I come up with. Which isn't good either, but I don't really do anything that could get me into shit.